Planned Parenthood facilities are shutting down — most recently the Planned Parenthood Manhattan Health Center — citing financial struggles. However, a new report shows that the salary of the CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Alexis McGill Johnson, rose by more than a third between 2021 and 2022 despite the financial problems faced by affiliates.
American Life League’s STOPP International recently released its 2025 Report on Planned Parenthood CEO Compensation, and just as in years past, the salaries of the organization’s top staff members are shocking in light of the financial turmoil the abortion giant portrays to Americans — even as it rakes in nearly $700 million annually from the federal government.
According to the report, in 2021, McGill Johnson was paid $683,697. One year later, she made $904,014 — a 32% increase. Compensation among all of the top Planned Parenthood executives increased on average from $421,713 to $502,896 — a nearly 20% increase during that same time frame. The total compensation for the top 11 PPFA employees rose from $5.48 million to $5.74 million from 2021 to 2022.
For comparison, according to a press release, the average annual salary of a Planned Parenthood affiliate CEO is more than triple that of other nonprofit executives. The average salary for a nonprofit CEO in the United States is about $117,000, while the average for Planned Parenthood executives (not including the CEO) is $352,661, putting them in the 98th percentile of wage earners in the U.S.
“Planned Parenthood’s exorbitant CEO and affiliate earnings continue to grow each year, while they simultaneously say they are experiencing financial decline,” Katherine Van Dyke, American Life League’s lead researcher, explained. “The data collected in our CEO report is vital, as it shows that taxpayer money is truly the fuel for Planned Parenthood’s earnings and that the financial facts from their own reports do not align with the organization’s claims of financial woes.”
Closing affiliates
But as Planned Parenthood executives are taking home above-average paychecks, women are receiving below-average care.
As previously reported by Live Action Research Fellow Carole Novielli, from 2012-2013 to 2022-2023, “Planned Parenthood abortions… increased over 20% from 327,166 to 392,715 — the highest number of abortions reported by the corporation.”
“In addition, over the past 10 years, excess revenue over spending (profit) at the abortion corporation ballooned from $58.2 million to $178.6 million — an increase of nearly 207%,” she explained.
However, services decreased by 16%, including a 30% decrease in the number of clients from 3 million to 2.1 million; a 25% decrease in facilities from 800 to 600; a 68% decline in prenatal care from 19,506 to 6,316; a 40% decline in contraceptive services; a 59% decline in cancer screenings; a 62% drop in breast care; and a 60% drop in Pap tests. Yet it committed 3.8 million abortions in that time frame while receiving $6.5 billion in taxpayer funding.
In addition to a serious lack of actual health care services, Planned Parenthood affiliates’ buildings are falling apart.
In August 2024, the Manhattan Health Center began to show signs that it might be shutting down. That month, it ceased deep sedation for patients getting IUDs — despite complaints about the pain of IUD placement — as a way to cut costs.
Things have allegedly become so bad at Planned Parenthood affiliates around the nation that even The New York Times ran an article about the abortion giant’s “crisis.” It said, “The health care provider of last resort is working to shore up affiliate clinics that are in dire financial straits. Patients report failed abortions, misplaced IUDs and inadequately trained staff.”
Ashley Schmidt, a former Planned Parenthood employee explained, “We’re begging for supplies, and we get denied constantly because they just can’t afford it.”
READ: NIH gives Planned Parenthood exec $495K to study ‘oppression’ and abortion
Affiliates said they often run out of over-the-counter pain medication and I.V. flushes. Many facilities are in desperate need of upgrades and repairs. In Omaha, reported the Times, sewage from a clogged toilet leaked into the abortion recovery room for two days as employees shoved exam table pads under the bathroom door to try to stop it. It was so bad that patients vomited.
In Manhattan, the costs of repairing the building are so high that Planned Parenthood is attempting to sell it for $39 million.
Staff complaints
In addition, staff members seem incapable of providing care to patients. Salaries are said to be so low that employee turnover sits at around 50% a year at many facilities. Staffers aren’t just paid poorly, but treated poorly, says the Times.
Staff workers complain of a “chaotic” and “toxic” work environment, no overtime pay, no breaks, being pushed out of the job if they request leave, and — as reported by Live Action News — racism and discrimination. Many say they were never properly trained for patient intake, blood draws, or other tasks.
But when an employee tried to speak up, the Times reported, “Dozens of current and former employees also said that their complaints were met with reminders that they were in a ‘mission moment,’ meaning a time of crisis for reproductive rights so urgent that it overshadowed their concerns.”
Which explains where much of the money is going — the mission. So just what is Planned Parenthood’s mission? Hint: It’s not health care.
It’s to “provide leadership, advocacy and education in the field of reproductive health care.” In other words, the central work of Planned Parenthood is to advocate for legalized abortion, be a leader in the pro-abortion movement, and educate (though with false information) on so-called “reproductive health care,” ie: abortion.
Call for continued funding
It might claim that it doesn’t have money, but as The Times reported, after Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2022, Planned Parenthood “enjoyed a fund-raising boom, with $498 million in donations that year” alone.
Billionaire MacKenzie Scott (ex-wife of Jeff Bezos) gave the abortion corporation $275 million to use at the national office and 21 affiliates. And though, “[o]ver the last five years, the national office has distributed more than $899 million to affiliates to help them deliver care,” according to the Times, “none of it went directly to medical services” (emphasis added).
“Instead,” said The Times, “under the national bylaws, the majority of the money is spent on the legal and political fight to maintain abortion rights.” What does that look like?
It looks like an outrageous amount of money spent on political campaigns — and those excessive salaries for top executives.
Planned Parenthood is one of the top contributors to abortion-related lobbying spending, and a key player in the promotion of pro-abortion ballot initiatives in various states. On June 24, Planned Parenthood Votes announced that its political and advocacy groups planned to spend $40 million in the 2024 election to defend abortion access.
Despite these glaring financial errors, Planned Parenthood and its supporters are still crying out for continued federal funding for the organization.
As PPGNY prepares to close a facility, it blames, in part, the New York legislature’s decision not to increase Medicaid reimbursements for facilities that commit abortion. Yet, even outside of the Medicaid reimbursements it continued to receive, PPGNY took in nearly $24 million in government grants in 2023, and the affiliate’s CEO, Wendy Stark, received $423,561.
Planned Parenthood has been mismanaging its money, focusing its efforts on ensuring abortion remains legal and accessible. In doing so, it has largely ignored the needs of staff and affiliates to provide actual health care to women. It does not deserve a penny in federal funding through Medicaid, Title X, or any other means.
